Regarding the meeting . . .

[Randy W]

An opinion from "an exiled Tiananmen Square student leader based in Taiwan"

 

Taiwan’s President Caves In to China

By WU’ER KAIXI

NOV. 6, 2015

 

 

The “historic” meeting that is to take place in Singapore on Saturday between the leaders of China and Taiwan is nothing to cheer about. There will be no progress in terms of peace and reconciliation. The world will witness nothing but politics at its most cynical.

 

. . .

 

t would be a victory for Mr. Xi and for Mr. Ma — particularly if the KMT were able to hold on to Parliament. The presidential duo could package it to the international community as a major stride toward peace and reconciliation. Western columnists would rub their hands in glee and write in adulatory terms of China and Taiwan’s push for peace in a strife-riddled world.

 

Nevertheless, the truth will remain that whatever happens on Saturday in Singapore is nothing more than cynical politics — cynical politics that come at a huge cost for Taiwan. The reason: for the first time since the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, one of its leaders will have become a broker in Taiwan’s electoral process.

This is not something that China’s leadership has earned. It is a position the Chinese have bullied their way into. Meanwhile, Mr. Ma has betrayed his voters by joining forces with the greatest threat to their sovereignty — and purely for political gain.

 

 

[Randy W]

. . . and the New York Times perspective

 

Meeting With Taiwan Reflects Limits of China’s Checkbook

 

 

“The way to win an election in Taiwan is to be the less dangerous of the two options,” said Nathan F. Batto, a political scientist at Academia Sinica in Taipei. The D.P.P. was voted out of power after Mr. Chen’s efforts to assert Taiwan’s sovereignty and rile China, he noted. “But over the past four years, I think Ma Ying-jeou defined himself as the more dangerous option. He engaged China too eagerly.”

 

[Randy W]

. . . and, of course, Xinhua covered it

 

 

Leaders join hands across Taiwan Strait for first time in 66 years

 

In a four-point proposal made during the meeting, Xi described the 1992 Consensus that gave birth to the one-China principle, and opposition to Taiwan independence as the common political ground of both sides.

 

He also called for deeper exchange and dialogue, boosting the well-being of people on both sides, and bringing about the great revival of the Chinese nation together.

 

"Both sides belong to one country... That fact and legal basis has never changed, and will never change," Xi said.

 

Xi and Ma attended a dinner together after meeting face-to-face for about an hour.

 

It is the first time that leaders across the Taiwan Strait have shaken hands and faced each other across a table in 66 years. Relations between the mainland and Taiwan stalled when the forces of the Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan in 1949 after a civil war.

 

In their capacities as "leaders of the two sides" of the Taiwan Strait, both Xi and Ma addressed each other only as "mister" throughout their meeting Saturday.

 

[Randy W]

The people of Taiwan, of course, watch developments in other locations VERY closely

 

Developing Democracy in Hong Kong

[Greg.D.]

From the NY Times article:

 

The encounter, scheduled to take place on neutral ground in Singapore on Saturday, will be trumpeted by both sides as a milestone in cross-strait relations. But it also seems to be an implicit acknowledgment by Mr. Xi that the Chinese effort to woo Taiwan with economic benefits alone has been unsuccessful — and that Beijing’s dream of unification with the island is as distant as ever, despite a long courtship.

“Xi Jinping is at a loss,” said Parris Chang, president of the Taiwan Institute for Political, Economic and Strategic Studies, a think tank in Taipei. “He doesn’t know what to do.”

Jonathan Sullivan, an associate professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, described the decision to meet Mr. Ma as “a Hail Mary pass with time expiring.”

He is definitely trying to influence the election, which is fair, I guess.

I wonder how it feels when none of your neighbors - or anybody, for that matter - trust you.

Every time the word "peaceful" is used in an official statement from PRC I think "I don't think that means what you think it means".